Blog:

The Competitive Advantage

“I hate selling!” It’s one of those phrases I hear often from seller-doers in our industry – the independent consultants, small business owners and senior executives at larger firms who have “sales” as a part of their job description, but don’t really want to be doing it.

But why is that? Why do so many non-salespeople hate selling? Their reason for the disdain of sales can likely be traced back to one (or more) of the following…

These events got me to thinking… every year, most MR professionals and principals attend a few conferences, workshops or webinars as a means of improving their research skills and staying on top of new trends in our industry.

But what about staying on top of business development for your firm? What can you do – in addition to attending the events above – to improve your marketing and sales skills? To help, here are few other resources to investigate if your marketing and sales skills need brushing up…

Congratulations! You just hired a new sales rep… or maybe a couple of them. Maybe they’re even the first ones you’ve ever hired. And you’re anxious to get them trained and “on the street!”

So, what’s your sales training agenda look like? Like most firms, you’ll focus on all of the different services they will be selling… making sure they know exactly what you do. That’s a good start, but you’re missing a lot. Make sure to include these critical topics as you’re putting your training agenda together…

I was having a conversation with my good friend and colleague, Brian, who founded a marketing services company in the financial industry. In addition to running the company, he also manages the sales team that makes sales calls on behalf of his clients.

All of his sales reps have years of experience and are evidently hitting it out of the park for his clients. Chatting with him on the phone this morning, he mentioned he was heading to the office for a sales meeting. I asked about his agenda… and he mentioned he was doing a lesson on ‘how to leave an effective voice mail.’ What?! He’s managing a team of experienced, proven sales reps and he’s presenting a ‘Sales 101’ lesson on voice mails?!